Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Lebanon: Explosions

The Lord Bishop of Southwark: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will ask the UN Human Rights Council to undertake a fact-finding mission concerning the blast at the Port of Beirut on 4 August 2020.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: From the outset, the British government called on Lebanon's leaders to urgently and transparently investigate the blast and to hold to account those responsible. We continue to lobby the Lebanese authorities on the importance of a credible and transparent investigation. There must be full accountability and those responsible for any criminal wrongdoing should face justice, and if any multilateral initiatives are brought forward we will engage constructively on them.

Cabinet Office

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Lord Blencathra: To ask His Majesty's Government howmany civil servants who were issued fixed-penalty notices in relation to gatherings in Downing Street that broke the COVID-19 rules, are still working in any of the buildings in Downing Street.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The Government does not hold this information; this was an operational matter for the Metropolitan Police.Notwithstanding, I would refer the noble peer to the report published by the Second Permanent Secretary of 25 May 2022, and the Government's response of 25 May 2022, Official Report, House of Commons, Cols. 295-297.

Civil Servants: Vetting

Lord West of Spithead: To ask His Majesty's Government whetherall of the civil servants working in (1) the Department for Business and Trade, (2) the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, (3) the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, (4) the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, (5) the Department for Transport, (6) the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and (7) the Department of Health and Social Care, who have regular access to top secret material have been cleared through Developed Vetting.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The UK government policy on National Security Vetting is outlined in the HMG Personnel Security Controls, which states the levels of clearance required for access to TOP SECRET material and the access controls in place. For long-term, frequent or uncontrolled access to TOP SECRET assets and/or access to TOP SECRET codeword material, the level of clearance required is Developed Vetting (DV). Occasional, supervised access to TOP SECRET assets is permitted for individuals with Security Check (SC) clearance.

Vetting: Proof of Identity

Lord Clement-Jones: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will list the name, origin, and provenance of all data fields provided by the Cabinet Office “Gov.UK One Login” to the current “Basic Criminal Records Check Service” regarding an identity verified by (1) passport, and (2) drivers licence; and how long they retain each field after use.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: When a person is seeking to use the ‘Request a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) basic check’ service online, they must first prove their identity via the GOV.UK One Login system. Once a user has successfully done so, GOV.UK One Login provides relevant data to DBS to confirm that the user is who they say they are. This data includes:full namedate of birthall addresses declared by the user, the dates they lived at each address, and the Unique Property Reference Number(s)email addressphone number (if provided)the level of identity confidence the user has reachedan encrypted security keyWhere a user uses a passport to verify their identity:passport number, ICAO issuer code, and passport expiry dateWhere a user uses a driving licence to verify their identity:driving licence number, expiry date, issue number and the organisation that issued the drivers licenceEach of the above fields is currently held in GOV.UK One Login for 6 months.Only the ‘Request a DBS basic check’ service has access to the user’s data. The service only processes the minimum amount of data required to prove the user’s identity.

Government Departments: Dahua Technology and Hikvision

Lord Campbell-Savours: To ask His Majesty's Government whetherthey have issued instructions to any government departments to cease or avoid the use of (1) Hikvision, or (2) Dahua, equipment; and if so, (a) which departments, and (b) with what justification.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: I refer the noble Lord to PQ HL4954 of 23 January 2023 but, for the benefit of the House, on 24 November 2022, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster laid a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) instructing departments to cease deployment of surveillance equipment on sensitive sites on the government estate, where such equipment is produced by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China. Departments have been advised to consider whether there are sites to which they would wish to extend the same risk mitigation.

National Underground Asset Register

Baroness Walmsley: To ask His Majesty's Government, further tothe proposed establishment of the National Underground Asset Register, what plans they have to put a legal obligation on housebuilders, commercial developers, and individual property owners to register all deep underground obstructions, such as deep foundations, energy piles, and other potential underground obstructions.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The National Underground Asset Register is a digital map of underground pipes and cables that is primarily aimed to support safe digging through the creation of a secure, auditable, trusted and sustainable platform that will support greater data sharing of underground assets such as water and gas pipes and electricity cables.There are no plans to introduce a legal obligation to require housebuilders, commercial developers and individual property owners to register all deep underground obstructions.

Department of Health and Social Care

Rare Diseases: Medical Treatments

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence regarding the suitability of its Single Technology Appraisal pathway to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of potentially one-time treatments such as novel cell and gene therapies for rare diseases.

Lord Markham: The Department has had no such recent discussions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether all new medicines should be funded by the National Health Service based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE’s technology appraisal programme is suitable for the assessment of novel cell and gene therapies for the treatment of rare diseases where companies are willing to price their products in a way that represents value to the taxpayer. NICE has recommended several cell therapies through the programme that are now available to NHS patients. NICE concluded a review of its methods and processes in January 2022 and has introduced a number of changes that ensure that its appraisal processes are suitable for emerging new medicines, including a broader severity modifier and changes to better respond to uncertainty. The Innovative Medicines Fund launched last year and the existing Cancer Drugs Fund also support early patient access to cell and gene therapies while further evidence is collected to address clinical uncertainty.

Ambulance Services: Pay

Lord Trefgarne: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the typical monthly salary of an ambulance crew member working in England.

Lord Markham: Following last year’s pay award, average basic pay per person for professionally qualified ambulance staff has increased to around £34,300 from around £33,000. On average, ambulance staff have additional earnings worth around 37% of basic pay, covering unsocial hours, geographical supplements and overtime. Following the 2022/23 pay award this will take total earnings to around £47,000 per year.

Mental Health Services: Children

Lord Weir of Ballyholme: To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they have committed to child mental health services in the current financial year; and how much funding they provided in each of the last three years.

Lord Markham: The following table shows information about funding for children and young people’s mental health services for 2019/20 to 2021/22. The last three years for which complete information is available can be found at the NHS mental health dashboard in an online only format. Also included is planned spend for 2022/23, according to the quarter two, 2022/23 National Health Service mental health dashboard. YearMental Health clinical commissioning group spend - excluding learning disabilities and eating disorders (£ million)Mental Health clinical commissioning group spend - eating disorders (£ million)Total spend (£ million)2019/20791.450.0841.42020/21880.857.5938.32021/22922.072.8994.82022/23 (planned)998.083.51,081.5 Source: NHS England

Public Health: Finance

Lord Porter of Spalding: To ask His Majesty's Government how much public health funding per head was allocated to each local authority in England in (1) 2020–21 and (2) 2021–22.

Lord Markham: The information requested is set out in the attached spreadsheet.Public health funding for Local Authorities (xlsx, 27.7KB)

Coronavirus: Immunosuppression

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 2 February (HL4910), whether the National Institute for Health and Care Research rapid study on those who remain vulnerable to poor outcomes from COVID-19 despite vaccination has beenpublished; and if so, where that study can be accessed.

Lord Markham: The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, funded an extension of the QCovid 4 - Predicting risk of death or hospitalisation from COVID-19 in adults testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron wave in England study. This has now been “pre-printed”, but not peer reviewed or published. A copy of the document is attached.QCovid 4 study (pdf, 1879.0KB)

Coronavirus: Immunosuppression

Baroness Altmann: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the finding from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that "Evusheld isnot recommended for vulnerable adults who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 because there is not enough evidence of its effectiveness against current variants and those likely to be circulating in the next 6 months", what consideration they have given to usinghuman-derived convalescent plasma for immune compromised individuals; and what trials they have undertaken, if any, to test its effectiveness.

Baroness Altmann: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to (1) the Written Answer byLord Markham on 20 February (HL5171), and (2) the conclusion from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that "Evusheld is not recommended for vulnerable adults who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 because there is not enough evidence of its effectiveness against current variants and those likely to be circulating in the next 6 months", what steps they will now take to ensure that immunocompromised individualshave access to passive immunisation via relevant human-derived antibody products from convalescent plasma, instead of through monoclonal antibody treatments.

Lord Markham: For treatment of patients with COVID-19, the REMAP-CAP and RECOVERY trials both found convalescent plasma did not provide any benefit to the overall patient group. However, detailed analysis within subgroups of the REMAP-CAP data found there was a likelihood that people who are immunosuppressed may benefit from convalescent plasma with very high antibody levels - unfortunately there was insufficient data for a definite result. Consequently, REMAP-CAP has now decided to reopen the convalescent plasma arm to collect more data. Further research is needed to determine the benefit of using human-derived convalescent plasma, or products derived from it, for immunocompromised individuals before this could be approved and available to patients. The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including immunoglobulins and convalescent plasma.

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services.

Lord Markham: The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. Part of this increased investment will enable an additional 345,000 children and young people to access National Health Service-funded mental health support. In recognition of the increased demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic, we invested an extra £79 million in 2021/22 to expand children’s mental health services, including enabling approximately 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services, 2,000 more to access eating disorder services and accelerating the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges. NHS England has consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards as part of its Clinically-led Review of NHS Access Standards, including that children, young people and their families, presenting to community-based mental health services should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. As a first step, NHS England has recently shared and promoted guidance with its local system partners to consistently report waiting times to support the development of a baseline position. The Department is now working with NHS England on the next steps for introducing the new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. Assessments for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may also happen through child and adolescent mental health services. Building on last year’s investment of £13 million through the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Mental Health Recovery Plan, we will invest £2.5 million in 2022/23 to test and embed improved autism diagnostic pathways. NHS England are developing a national framework to set out the process of how children, young people and adults should receive an autism diagnosis. The aim of this work is to improve the quality of these diagnostic processes and reduce waiting times. Integrated care boards and NHS trusts should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management. The guideline aims to improve the diagnosis of ADHD and to improve the quality of care and support for people of all ages who are diagnosed with ADHD.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Ash Dieback Disease

The Earl of Leicester: To ask His Majesty's Government whatsteps they are taking to protect the health of trees in the UK against the disease ash dieback.

Lord Benyon: Since ash dieback was first detected in the UK, we have restricted the movement of ash trees from outside Europe to protect against other strains of the pathogen, and invested more than £8 million to advance our scientific understanding of this disease. We have conducted the world’s largest screening trials for tolerant trees and have planted over 3000 trees of 1000 genotypes in the first UK archive of tolerant ash. They have been drawn from a wide geographic spread, and new trees will continue to be added, to maximise the genetic diversity in the collection and facilitate the possibility of a future breeding programme of resilient ash. Guidance for landowners on managing diseased ash has also been published, including a toolkit for Local Authorities, which has been downloaded nearly 20,000 times. Defra also provides restoration grants, to support replanting with alternative species where ash dieback is present. We continue to invest in research to enhance our understanding of the disease, improve management and identify resistant trees.Since ash dieback was first detected in the UK, we have restricted the movement of ash trees from outside Europe to protect against other strains of the pathogen, and invested more than £8 million to advance our scientific understanding of this disease. We have conducted the world’s largest screening trials for tolerant trees and have planted over 3000 trees of 1000 genotypes in the first UK archive of tolerant ash. They have been drawn from a wide geographic spread, and new trees will continue to be added, to maximise the genetic diversity in the collection and facilitate the possibility of a future breeding programme of resilient ash. Guidance for landowners on managing diseased ash has also been published, including a toolkit for Local Authorities, which has been downloaded nearly 20,000 times. Defra also provides restoration grants, to support replanting with alternative species where ash dieback is present. We continue to invest in research to enhance our understanding of the disease, improve management and identify resistant trees.

Ash Dieback Disease

The Earl of Leicester: To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of ash trees that were felled in England in each year between 2012 and 2022.

Lord Benyon: The Government does not collect data on the number of individual ash trees that have been felled, including those affected by ash dieback, but between May 2018 and February 2023, the Forestry Commission has recorded a total of 7271 felling licence applications containing ash (making up a component of the trees planned for felling). The felling licence system in operation prior to May 2018 does not allow the species breakdown to be reported. The number of approved felling licences with ash since May 2018 are as follows: YearTotal2018370201914332020154820211855202217522023313Grand Total7271 However, precise estimation is challenging because felling in some circumstances, such as when public safety is at risk, does not require a felling license, and the issuing of a felling license does not come with an obligation to conduct the felling works. Where appropriate, approved felling licences carry legally enforceable restocking conditions to ensure any trees felled are replaced using suitable means and to ensure tree and woodland cover is maintained for future generations.

Ash Dieback Disease

The Earl of Leicester: To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the percentage of ash trees that are surviving chalara ash dieback disease.

Lord Benyon: From observations in Europe and the UK, we expect 1-5% of ash trees to show useful levels of genetic resistance to the disease. Resistance is heritable which offers hope for a future breeding programme.Reports from Europe have shown maximum mortality rates of 85%, but rates vary between countries and sites, as well as the timescales of monitoring and felling activity, so are difficult to validate. Ash trees, especially larger and older trees, can also decline slowly with the disease, over a period of years or decades, and with recovery shown in some years. This makes it difficult to estimate long term survival with any certainty. In the UK, the level of infection remains widely variable between areas, with the south-east of England being most affected.

Trees: Inspections

The Earl of Leicester: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number oflocal authorities which implement a policy ofrepeat tree inspections looking out for unsafe trees and tree diseases such as ash dieback.

Lord Benyon: The Occupiers’ Liability Act imposes a duty of care on landowners, including Local Authorities, to manage their tree stock and make safe any trees which pose a risk to public safety.Government has provided Local Authorities with a range of guidance to help them manage their tree stock, including a Common Sense Guide to the Risk Management of Trees, an Ash Dieback Toolkit which has been downloaded over 20,000 times and a Trees and Woodland Strategy toolkit published in December 2022.The frequency of tree inspections at a local level will be guided by risk, including the proximity of the tree to people and property. Defra does not collect data on the frequency of Local Authority tree inspections.

Sewage: Waste Disposal

Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government whether water companies are required to collect and submit data on (1) the number of storm overflow monitors that are offline at any time, (2) the duration of these outages, and (3) the reasons for the outages; and if not, whether they intend to introduce such requirements.

Lord Benyon: Data is provided by Water and Sewerage Companies to the Environment Agency each year as part of their regulatory Annual Return. As a result of additional duties introduced through the Environment Act, water companies will report in near real time, and where a monitor is offline, water companies are required to bring monitors back into service as soon as reasonably practical. As part of the Annual Return, Water and Sewerage Companies are asked to provide:The percentage of the reporting period that the monitor was functioning and could reliably record discharges if one occurred.Primary reason why the Event Duration Monitor may not have been operational ≥90% of the reporting periodWhether action to improve this overflow has been taken / is planned to be taken, and in which month; or whether there is an ongoing investigation to identify the appropriate action.

Avian Influenza: Research

Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to further international collaboration relating to research on avian flu.

Lord Benyon: Defra continues to invest in avian influenza research and monitors the situation in Europe and globally. Defra funds research directly or by leveraging funding through UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), a Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)-funded non-governmental public body of which the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is a research council partner. In the last five years, £4.3 million has been invested in research, funded through BBSRC, either solely focussed on avian influenza, or as part of wider projects for poultry disease control.In addition to supporting international collaboration through specific research projects, such as DeltaFlu, international collaboration and knowledge exchange is facilitated through discussions between the UK Chief Veterinary Officer and representatives from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) avian influenza national and international reference laboratories, and their counterparts in the EU and globally through the World Organisation for Animal Health and allied projects. Including through the joint WOAH-FOA Scientific Network on animal influenza OFFLU.Collaborations include those through the STAR-IDAZ International Research Consortium on Animal Health which is run by a partnership including Defra, BBSRC, WOAH, CAB International and Kreavet BV. STAR-IDAZ is a global initiative aiming to coordinate research programmes at the international level and to contribute to the development of new and improved animal health strategies for priority diseases, infections and issues, including avian influenza.